Salt marshes, seagrass meadows and coral reefs around the world have been popular tourist destinations for centuries, but what if we said that these coastal habitats also play a key role in reducing carbon emissions?
Scientists have found that coastal habitats act as a reservoir to store carbon dioxide and subsequently reduce atmospheric pollution, making them vital greenhouse gas sinks. Although other emissions of methane and nitrous oxide gases offset this impact by 9-20 percent globally.
A greenhouse gas (GHG) sink facilitates the reduction of harmful atmospheric gases by storing carbon in a different form. These drops reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 11.4 percent. Ten percent of these offsets are due to chemical processes that take place in forests and under the soil.
According to the study, eight out of ten coastal regions worldwide are net greenhouse gas sinks for these three primary greenhouse gases, with Southeast Asia, North America and Africa being the main hotspots.
Ecosystems such as coastal wetlands absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert it into new leaves, roots and other organic matter. This can help combat rising COâ‚‚ levels in the atmosphere.
By analyzing data collected from 738 sites in 10 global regions and collected in studies published between 1975 and 2020, the researchers looked at the various ecological impacts of different areas such as lagoons, polar fjords, salt marshes, coastal mangrove forests and underwater seagrass communities. .
They assessed emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from different habitats.
As a result of human activity, atmospheric concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have increased by 47, 156, and 23 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the industrial era. And while coastal regions offer respite, methane and nitrous oxide counteract this effect, making the region a net source of greenhouse gases.
“The GHG radiation balance of estuaries and coastal vegetation is a complex spatial and temporal combination of GHG sources and sinks, complicating the estimation of the net effect of global warming and the implementation of effective mitigation strategies,” the researchers wrote, highlighting the goal of their study.
An estuary is a coastal body of water where rivers and streams meet the sea. On the other hand, the radiation balance is a measure of the amount of energy available at the Earth’s surface to drive the photosynthetic process.
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